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SHNS Quince tended to be a rangy, thorny shrub difficult to grow in smaller gardens. When not in bloom, the plants weren't particularly attractive either. This new series solves problems and produces a more colorful plant that competes with other modern flowering shrubs from coast to coast.

For many who found themselves involved in the trial process, the news of Byrne's plea agreement and sentencing evoked bittersweet reactions.

Byrne, 38, a former hotel security officer, was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in state prison after agreeing to a plea in connection with the 1991 murder of his wife, attorney Leona Caramanica.

Caramanica was found strangled in her East Goshen apartment. Byrne was tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison twice, and twice had the result thrown out on appeal.

"I still get people on the street asking me about the Lea Caramanica case," said Chief Deputy District Attorney Patrick Carmody. "She was very well known."

Carmody prosecuted the case since its beginning. "Because of the length and emotional turmoil of this trial, I've become very good friends with the Caramanica family," he said.

Ten years had taken an "enormous toll," though. "Nothing's going to bring Lea back," Carmody said.

West Chester attorney Richard Meanix served as co-counsel to defense attorney John Duffy during Byrne's two trials.

"I still have vivid memories," he said. "I remember becoming very emotional after the first trial," which he described as a "whodunit?"

Since Meanix wasn't going to assist in a possible third trial -- he left Duffy's law firm in 1999 -- he said he didn't experience the same feelings about Thursday's hearing as other Byrne defenders did.

For another attorney once involved in the case, feelings were very strong.

"It has been a horrible ordeal for the whole Caramanica family," said Alita Rovito, former assistant district attorney and Carmody's co-counsel in the first trial.

Rovito, a Chester County Family Court master, said that above all she found closure in the safety of Caramanica's two children.

The children, now 9 and 12 years old, have been in the care of Mariann Caramanica, Leona Caramanica's mother, since 1991. During Byrne's trial, however, they were at the center of a custody dispute between Byrne and the Caramanica family.

On Thursday, Byrne consented to Mariann Caramanica's adoption of the children and terminated his parental rights.

Like others who supported the prosecution, Rovito said she would rather have seen Byrne imprisoned for life, but "this is adequate."

Stevi Douglass, a West Chester paralegal, met Leona Caramanica in the Villanova Law School library in the late 1980s.

With both of them students, both expectant mothers, "our lives just kept intertwining," Douglass said.

She sat in court with the Caramanica family every day of the trials and said she was prepared to join them through a third trial.

Douglass said she was relieved that the children were with the Caramanica family, but "troubled" that Byrne may be paroled at age 48. "He could start a new life," she said. "Lea doesn't have that opportunity."